They should have saved the public grant money and asked my grandfather

From the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and University College of London (SCREAMING HEADLINE NEWS):

People are afraid to lose money

The study of two women with brain lesions that made them unafraid to lose on a gamble showed the amygdala, the brain's fear center, activates at the very thought of losing money.

The finding, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers insight into economic behavior and suggests that humans evolved to be cautious about the prospects of losing food or other valued possessions.

Benedetto De Martinoa of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and University College of London and colleagues were studying why people will turn down gambles that are likely to lead to gain.

"Laboratory and field evidence suggests that people often avoid risks with losses even when they might earn a substantially larger gain, a behavioral preference termed 'loss aversion'," they wrote.

"Little, epa", grandpa told me as we overheard two men betting each other on the 1958 world series, "never bet what you can't lose."

Apparently, unknown to me, my grandfather had completed his neurology residency many years before.

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